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 Post subject: Re: Ramaphosa
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:06 am 
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Joined: Tue May 21, 2002 12:00 am
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When corruption is that widespread, any anti-corruption campaign is not going to get them all. The best outcome is that they nail some of the most serious cases and the rest quietly decide to stop being so corrupt.

One of the worst things that could happen is Brazil, where EVERYBODY was exposed as corrupt, and all the politicians destroyed each others' careers by slinging accusations of corruption at each other, even if they were guilty of worse corruption themselves. The president was impeached, the whole system imploded, and a dangerous authoritarian demagogue stepped into the vacuum and got elected president by a disgusted public.

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 Post subject: Re: Ramaphosa
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:11 pm 
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Most of the corruption appears to have (for obvious reasons) been limited to the party that's been consistently pulling around (or over) 60% of the votes (i.e. the ANC). Mainly because (a) they were the ones with the power to sell off, and (b) there was clearly little to no punishment for it.

I think my idea of a Best Possible Resolution involves the most blatantly corrupt politicians getting seriously dealt with in the courts (mainly Zuma and, say, a half-dozen or a dozen of the other top offenders), along with the major people/companies doing the bribing (Bosasa and the Guptas being the major known candidates here) to the point where they either get thrown in jail or have to live the rest of their lives in places that don't have an extradition treaty with us, and the ANC losing their over-50% majority in the next election.

Hopefully, the combination of the three effects - punishment for the worst bribers, punishment for the worst bribees, and a reshuffling of who exactly holds the power (and that power no longer being concentrated in the hands of a single political party) - will force the levels of corruption down quite significantly.

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 Post subject: Re: Ramaphosa
 Post Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 4:01 am 
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So, the Zondo Commission of Enquiry continues to hear vast amounts of evidence - naming names of who bribed who, when and where it was paid, and the witnesses being cross-examined, that sort of thing.

Incidentally, they are insisting that the cross-examiners come in person to do the cross-examining; doing so via video link so that you can stay somewhere that doesn't have an extradition treaty with South Africa and thus avoid arrest is apparently not going to happen. But there was a lot of corruption, and so there's a lot of evidence to hear, and it all takes time.

(Our next election now has a date. That date is the eighth of May. I expect something very dramatic to happen just before then - possibly several very dramatic things - because all the major parties have PR departments and want to influence the vote in their favour).

However, not everyone is going to wait for the courts. The major banks have decided that they no longer want to risk the loss of reputation involved with having such a shady client, and will be closing Bosasa's bank accounts as of the end of the month. (The same thing happened to the Guptas a few years back).

Unlike the Gupta brothers (who, as far as I know, are still outside the country and not eager to return in case they get arrested), Bosasa is a company and needs banking facilities to keep running. As a result, the company is being liquidated.

In other news, several of Bosasa's directors have also been arrested. I'm hopeful that this will encourage anyone else who's thinking about bribery to think twice on the matter.

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